Where have all the protesters gone?

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The war is over in Iraq, but Reyko Shiraishi's heart is not at peace.

Outwardly, things are much the same in her life as before the war. No more anti-war vigils, forums, or protests. She has returned to her gardening and quiet routines of retirement.

But sadness again darkens the eyes of Shiraishi, 73, of Brookline, who spent 31/2 years in American internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II. Like many who objected to this latest war, she carries away a sense of failure -- protests didn't prevent the fighting -- and dejection over hardships in post-war Iraq.

"I feel so discouraged by what our country has done," said Shiraishi, a former schoolteacher. "We 'won the war,' but I personally feel defeated."

Earlier this year, hundreds of thousands of Iraq war opponents like Shiraishi hoisted signs, waved banners, marched, and blocked streets and federal offices in dozens of American cities coast to coast. It was the widest outpouring of domestic protest since the Vietnam war.

Since early April, when American forces took control of Baghdad, the booming voice of protest has subsided to a murmur.

What has become of the peace movement? Did protesters come to see the war as more justified when they learned more of Saddam Hussein's oppression? Did the relatively easy victory relieve their fears of military and civilian casualties?

The short answer is that minds were not changed, according to an Associated Press sampling of war opponents' postwar views.

The AP spoke with 20 people from Maine to California who had opposed the war, from protest leaders to objectors who never went to a single demonstration. Included was a panel discussion at the regional headquarters of the American Friends Service Committee, an arm of the pacifist Quaker church, in Cambridge. The interviews did not represent a scientific survey sample.

In their comments, the interviewees struck some common themes. Many profess to feel personally changed by the war, which they view as a history-making act of aggression, a brutish projection of American military and corporate might, and an embarrassing flouting of international opinion.

Many acknowledge feeling powerlessness and weariness after standing up against a military campaign that rolled over both Iraqi defenses and the anti-war movement. However, many are already rechanneling their energy into other social causes or party politics, often with a mind to unseating President Bush in next year's election.